Storage, memory price hike looms in SA

A fire which caused massive damage at the SK Hynix’s Wuxi DRAM factory in China a few weeks ago, combined with the weak Rand and a new tax, are pushing memory prices much higher in South Africa.

Esquire MD Mahomed Cassim said that memory prices have gone crazy following the Hynix factory fire.

“Memory pricing has already gone up by 19% last week, and another 15% this week, and further price increases are expected as the shortage and demands grows due to high season in US, UK and EU countries,” said Cassim.

Cassim said that they are currently selling a well-known international brand of 8GB DDR3 1333 at R649. This price can increase to R1,100 in the next few weeks.

Cassim said that the impact is still filtering through to South Africa because some suppliers still have old stock. However, as these stocks are depleted the higher prices will kick in.

The Esquire MD said that a wide range of products are affected, including flash drives, flash memory, solid State drives (SSDs) and SO-DIMM.

Cassim added that there is another factor may lift prices even further – a new tax introduced by the Chinese government.

“The Chinese government has imposed a 6% non-refundable and non-claimable VAT on all shipping, which means that freight forwarders will add the extra 6% to every shipment,” said Carrim.

He said that they are still gaining clarity on the impact of this new tax on local hardware importers, but it may well increase prices further.